If I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue's Barry Cryer – he of the relentlessly filthy mind and the impossibly croaky pipe-smoker's laugh – is already fully established as a national comic treasure, you wouldn't bet against the man sharing the stage with him on Sunday eventually coming to enjoy a similar status.

Still, if we are to concede the croaky premise that professional soccer in this country is not as big here as the rest of the world, that it's not given the same level of worship as NFL football or the NBA or baseball, every soccer fan might consider offering the same, resistant response: